Global South excluded from AI governance, UN warns, as safeguards lag tech advances
NEW YORK CITY: A UN scientific panel warned on Wednesday that safeguards on artificial intelligence were failing to keep pace with the rapidly growing capabilities of the technology.
It came as the panel released the first independent global assessment of the risks and benefits of AI, which found the Global South remained largely shut out of both development and governance of the technology that will be most responsible for shaping the region’s future.
The Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, a 40-member body created by the UN General Assembly in August last year, published its preliminary report ahead of the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva on July 6 and 7.
The co-chair of the panel, Yoshua Bengio, said AI capabilities were advancing faster than either the science or governments could absorb. He pointed to growing evidence of deceptive behavior by AI systems, and said science could not currently guarantee that increasingly capable AI would not cause catastrophic harm, whether through its own actions or malicious use.
